Second Victim Testifies at Andrew Schmuhl Trial

News4's Meagan Fitzgerald reports from the Andrew Schmuhl trial, as one of the victim's testifies. (Published Monday, May 23, 2016)

What to Know

Leo Fisher testified about seeing Andrew Schmuhl shoot his wife and thinking she was dead.

Police officers testified that Fisher and his wife were found suffering from multiple stab wounds and struggling to stay alive.

Schmuhl's lawyers are conceding Schmuhl attacked the couple but are saying he was taking many medications around the time of the attack.

A lawyer almost killed in a bizarre and brutal attack in his Virginia home testified Monday he thought the intruder killed his wife.

Leo Fisher took the stand for the prosecution Monday in the trial of Andrew Schmuhl, the lawyer accused in the Nov. 9, 2014, attack on Fisher and his wife, Sue Duncan. Fisher is a partner in an Arlington law firm that fired Schmuhl's wife, Alecia, two weeks prior to the attack.

Fisher told the jury that once inside their McLean home, Schmuhl used a Taser on him, tied him up and tied up his wife. Schmuhl never identified himself but questioned Fisher about Alecia Schmuhl for hours until, "The next think I know, he knocked me over backwards, he puts the pillow on me, he cuts my throat and starts stabbing me," Fisher said.

Duncan testified Friday that Schmuhl came to the door of their home flashed a badge and said he was going to arrest Fisher. When asked why he was there, he said Fisher had a hit out on a Mexican drug cartel, Duncan testified.

She testified tearfully that during the attack, she thought her husband had been killed and she played dead so it would stop.

Schmuhl's lawyers are conceding Schmuhl attacked the couple that night but are using an "involuntary insanity defense," saying their client was taking many medications around the time of the attack. They say his wife was the mastermind of the plan, which was poorly executed by her foot soldier husband.

A judge ruled last month the Schmuhls will have separate trials. Andrew Schmuhl's lawyers asked for separate trials when they learned his wife might use the defense that she's been a victim of years of spousal abuse and was programmed to do whatever her husband asked.